Urgent - There's an International Plan to Censor the Internet in the Works -- Let's Stop It in Its

That's how long before The Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty is voted on.

There is much more to this Treaty than Censored Internet. Most putting private corporate greed above national and local laws.

But I thought this might garner attention - and this is, in my opinion, what this SH*TDOWN is hidding from the public.

This is for all you Obama haters, of which I am not even though I'm not a fan. I'm a real social democrat - not a pretend populist (hum - could be
said of TeaBaggers too).

Here we go:

Described by experts Lori Wallach and Ben Beachy of Public Citizen as“one of the most significant international commercial agreements since
the creation of WTO” [3], the TPP is more than a trade agreement - it’s an underhanded attempt by old industry interests to censor the
Internet.

If it isn’t bad enough that these talks have occurred behind closed doors, President Obama is now taking this secrecy even further by
attempting to “fast track” the deal through Congress.

This means that elected U.S. Congress members would be forced to vote on the agreement without the possibility of sharing, discussing, or
amending its contents. Under such intense pressure from the President, it seems as though the most comprehensive and covert post-WTO trade agreement
could be finalized by as early as the end of October. The urgency to wrap up this controversial deal is reaffirmed by the White House’s recent
announcement that they’ll go ahead with the TPP -- despite the current government shutdown [6].

Unsurprisingly, Congress members have not taken to Obama’s undemocratic, fast track plans without protest. Several representatives have
recently spoken out against this backdoor deal, including Rep. Rosa DeLauro [7]: “I oppose fast-track authority like what we have had in the past
[...] we are not just here to rubber stamp what gets done.” Echoing this sentiment is Rep. Alan Grayson [8], who has described the Obama
Administration’s secrecy about the TPP as “an assault on democratic government.”

I don't see any republicans or libertarians denoucing Obama for this secrecy? I'd like to be wrong on that score so welcome examples from the freedom
and liberty crowd.

Here's Bloomberg's anti-democrat take on some Democrat's objections to this SECRET TRADE DEAL:

It also briefly explains how this can 'legally' be done in such secrecy and haste.

Negotiations are “being done without sufficient input from members of Congress,” DeLauro said. Lawmakers should have more of a say because
the TPP is a 21st century agreement that goes beyond traditional tariff deals, she said. The TPP would entail issues including environmental
protection, Internet trade, access to medicines and market access for small businesses.

A note on how poorly the Bloomberg article is: They introduct "Forman" without anything indication of who he/she is, nor any link to them. In a
DuckDuckGo (check it out!) simple search on TPP and Forman I have found nothing.

Whoever/Whatever Forman is Elizabeth Warren is quoted as:

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, urged her colleagues to vote against Froman’s confirmation in June until USTR released
its negotiating texts.

“If members of the public do not have reasonable access to the terms of the agreements under negotiation, then they are unable to offer real input
into the process,” she wrote in a June 13 letter.

And finally a quote from "Forman"and one from Ed Gerwin of 'Trade Guru LLC' (makes you feel all warm and fuzzy don't it?) in favor of secrecy and
haste:

Froman said USTR shares information and gets input from groups that may be affected by the discussions to make sure there are “no
surprises” in the trade negotiations.

Bottom Line
“You can’t release the text to everybody” from a negotiating standpoint, Ed Gerwin, president of consultancy Trade Guru LLC of Falls Church,
Virginia, said in a phone interview. “It’s like buying a car and letting everyone in the shop know what your bottom line is.”

This affects everyone of us - how is it WE THE PEOPLE have to have OUR OWN bottom line hidden from US?

Think about this people: The internet is our one last bastion of free speech, news without propaganda. And that's why they need to censor
it.

Typically, when something happens the news send a reporter. The reporter captures whatever it is that's happening and the information is brought
back to the studio. The studio, which can be pressured into leaving bits out, adding others in, can bring you a watered down and biased version of
events. And only the few who know the truth must rely on word of mouth and things like that.

With the internet, the same thing above happens but now we have a broad reaching platform that can be used to fill in the blanks the media left out.
We're no longer reliant on the networked news to bring us information. We can get it from the people who were there, thanks to websites like ATS.

And again, that's why this is so dangerous to them. Those people who want to manipulate the information so their versions of events
are told.

Michael Froman was confirmed on June 19 to succeed Ron Kirk as U.S. trade representative.
Froman and President Obama know each other from their time as editors of the Harvard Law Review. Now Froman has signed on for the unusual dual role of
international finance adviser for both the National Economic Council (NEC) and the National Security Council (NSC), linking the two bodies in an
effort to stem the world financial crisis. He'll also work as a liaison to the White House during Group of 7, Group of 8 and Group of 20 meetings.
A veteran of Citigroup, a bank that received $45 billion in government funding in order to stem its credit woes, Froman could receive some flak for
being part of the beleaguered company's tumble. Citigroup has also been a poster-child for Wall Street excess as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
had to urge the company to cancel plans for a $45 million private jet, despite accepting billions in taxpayer funds.

...which is not reassuring from a consumer (customer/human citizen) viewpoint.

Free trade agreements (as international law) stipulate that corporations have the right to negotiate directly with nations' governments - no other
"person" has that right. The agreements and law also say nations' governments must respect "confidentiality" - and democracy be dammed.

All that said - let's stop this nonsense!!!

And fyi -

Michael B. Froman (born August 20, 1962)[1] is the U.S. Trade Representative. He previously
was Assistant to the President of the United States and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs, a position to be held
jointly at the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. His responsibilities included serving as the United States sherpa to the
G7, G8, and G20 summits of economic powers.[2] On May 2, 2013 President Obama nominated him to succeed Ambassador Ron Kirk as the U.S. Trade
Representative.[3][4] He was confirmed on June 19, 2013.

I remember when the internet or at least the World Wide Web ( graphical front end for the once only text based internet we enjoyed since the mid 70's,
was new back in the early 90's

This internet was Freedom. Rather before we had this web browser graphical front end called the WWW we had Freedom. The Web Browser itself was the
catalyst for the commercialism and government control of the Internet. This happened between the early 90's and the late 90's when the government
working with large corporations drafted laws to accommodate business interests and gain control over the masses.

You saw this in the ads that started popping up on web pages, on the censorship of freedom of speech etc. The Internet should not be CENSORED at all,
Not by ATS the government or any private company or anyone.. sorry The Above Network but your part of The Big Problem. You as a private company ( for
example, i'm not picking on ATS itself) shouldn't, ( I repeat Should Not) have the right to censor even anything that goes through or onto your own
servers. You should stand up for American freedom and allow anything goes on your servers without censorship - you would do this because you want to
respect the rights and freedoms of Americans and you have the servers.. the ATS website set up, for the sole purpose of contributing to a global
community of free thinkers and information sharers - nothing more.. not as a business model but as a global outreach conduit. ( of course with many
legal disclaimers to protect yourself)

But what happens?.. Because business can make money over the internet and have the governments backing, they tend to care more about the dollar bottom
line than they do about true freedom of expression. It's an abuse of the intention of the internet from the start. It's a disgusting mockery of what
was supposed to be a tool of freedom for We the people.

So let it all go to hell it's already too corrupted. I'm telling you folks.. the ones too young to remember the early 90's internet before the web
browser and world wide web - we had applications we used to connect to the internet to do various things without a web browser. At this time we had
true freedom over the internet - it's like the difference between night and day now with us now living in the dark ages. we had no ads like we have on
every web page today. We had no censorship. Sure we have video streaming now that we didn't have then and other cool stuff but is it worth the price
we pay on our freedom? I think not. We would have had other streaming technology etc, soon enough anyway in time even without a web browser.

What We Need is another system like the Internet set up by We The People who will maintain control over the system to ensure it stays completely free
of government and big business lobby involvement.

So sure.. stop this new threat to help out for now but it's getting to be like we are beatinbg a dead horse. They already have way too much control we
should have never let government and big business have.

I'm using IOS 6 tho. On my ipad with IOS7.2, the search functions are changed and.suddenly every time I try to google, I end up in a search provided
by my Internet server. Not google. I checked preferences that I use google search engine.

Look I have said this to my friends over and over, "the" internet was the wildwest. A brave new world. The people had a tabula rasa, WE the people
created the internet.

What happened? Just that, people saw gold. a goldrush started and adds where popping up everywhere. We have the biggest library within our fingertips.
Yet we go on E-bay.

And I agree with X poster above, even ATS is part of the problem. I remember when SOPA was in the news, ATS was on fire, even S.O made a whole thread
about not supporting it. Then we got PRISM, and they all went mad.

But lets not forget google plus and all the facebook addons intwined in this site tracking your every movement. Lets face it; ATS is in bed with the
enemy.

This just proves we as a whole are flawed to the bone. Every chance we get to make something, we rig to make profit out of it.

Look I have said this to my friends over and over, "the" internet was the wildwest. A brave new world. The people had a tabula rasa, WE the people
created the internet.

What happened? Just that, people saw gold. a goldrush started and adds where popping up everywhere. We have the biggest library within our fingertips.
Yet we go on E-bay.

And I agree with X poster above, even ATS is part of the problem. I remember when SOPA was in the news, ATS was on fire, even S.O made a whole thread
about not supporting it. Then we got PRISM, and they all went mad.

But lets not forget google plus and all the facebook addons intwined in this site tracking your every movement. Lets face it; ATS is in bed with the
enemy.

This just proves we as a whole are flawed to the bone. Every chance we get to make something, we rig to make profit out of it.

In my beleaguered opinion: Money killed the internett of the olden times (Remember 300 baud dial-up modems and $12.00/hour commuserve accounts).
Once commerce came to the internet it became about owners not users. Then you were paying for access, not content or (gasp) the privledge of being
stocked (gosh my spelling)

Then came the selling of information to 'third parties' and so forth and so on. Does IRC even exist anymore - even as recently as 10 years ago that
was a pretty open playing field.

The concept of 'Service' has died along with the concept of 'Charity' - Remember when it was Faith, Hope and Charity - before those compassionate
Conservatives came along (See "The Family") to save the wealthy and turned it into Faith, Hope and Love.

Excellent link there, but i didn't find the exact experiment. Very similar ones tho.

So read it while you can before that one vanishes...

The experiment I'm referring to used a nano crystal of gold and carbon atoms so precise they allowed light to enter it and bounce on stepped atoms.
Between each step the wavelengths intersected and increased the power of the light inside the crystal which actually increased its speed (what they
said).

sorry The Above Network but your part of The Big Problem. You as a private company ( for example, i'm not picking on ATS itself) shouldn't, ( I
repeat Should Not) have the right to censor even anything that goes through or onto your own servers. You should stand up for American freedom and
allow anything goes on your servers without censorship - you would do this because you want to respect the rights and freedoms of Americans and you
have the servers.. the ATS website set up, for the sole purpose of contributing to a global community of free thinkers and information sharers -
nothing more.. not as a business model but as a global outreach conduit.

...they tend to care more about the dollar bottom line than they do about true freedom of expression. It's an abuse of the intention of the internet
from the start. It's a disgusting mockery of what was supposed to be a tool of freedom for We the people.

So let it all go to hell it's already too corrupted.

Ahem. I have no doubt ATS and The Above Network exist to make a profit and serve their own agenda. I also have no doubt this site would NOT exist if
it did not make a profit. Do they "care more about the dollar bottom line than they do about true freedom of expression"? ...I don't know. Maybe some,
not others. I DO know that I blossomed here between 2004 and about 2008 - intellectually and creatively. So thank you ATS.

Yes, the site has changed along with the rest of the Net. Yes, the first priority is to profit because it has to be. Is it corrupt? I don't think so.

I drift in and out now and then these days and don't get the rush I used to get here. Perhaps I've grown; maybe it's the site, not me. But the
questions I always ask myself are these: Can I meet my own agenda here, to poke and prod, share information, generate discussion and learn more
about what it is I want to learn? Can I do that better somewhere else?

Correct me if I'm wrong but... any one of us has the freedom to start up a site with "the sole purpose of contributing to a global community of free
thinkers and information sharers." ...Maybe the big picture is bigger than you know.

Is the Net "already too corrupted"? No more than the rest of the world and other times methinks - and every religious/mystical tradition from the
beginning of time has offered the same admonitions and advice. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, go with the flow, be like water, be
in the crowd but not of it, know thyself...

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